Ryshia Kennie ...a world you never imagined!

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Friday, July 21, 2017

It's been a great week so far. Beautiful balmy temperatures on the prairie. Okay, hot the way I like it. And a contest win!

First off - Tried out some electric bikes the other day and rode around the old warehouse district. The bikes were great fun. You could really fly with little effort and I could see they'd be a great way to get around town. On our test run, it was a reminder of how things used to be, as we rode by the faded brick buildings that had survived the Great Depression and a record-breaking tornado. Fast forward a "few" years - and there we are cruising past, fantasizing about owning one of these fantastic bikes. In the end, we decided that maybe they'd be a bit impractical as the majority of our year is not conducive to bike riding - that is if you're a wimp like me and like everything hot, including weather - these bikes are a pipe dream, at least for now.

So, while everyone whines about the heat, yesterday I spent all day on the deck where it was wild life central. The bird bath was full of water and the birds were battling over whose turn it was. A couple of times I had to clap my hands and let a slow-poke know that it was time to pick up his towel and go, and let another bird have a bath. Meantime other birds were scrapping over who got to feed at the feeder and the woodpecker decided that our house was fair game. While all this was going on, a squirrel decided that an empty plant pot should be moved from under the deck so that he might roll around in it like it had been marked - this plant pot is for squirrel entertainment purposes only.

Hot weather, bikes and wild life aside, there's other things going on this week
- good things. Sheik Defense won best cover art in the Affair de Coeur's annual cover art contest in the Hot Guyz Patrol category!

The voting was going on all last week. And now the results are in! Because, just as the heroes in my book should be hot - steaming even. So is the cover of Sheik's Defense.

It was a nail-biting wait as the votes came in over the space of a week. Especially since there were so many other hot guys gracing the covers of the books in the running. Never mind the other categories - I had my faves in each one and cheered them on as the week progressed.

I'd love to say that I designed and orchestrated the making of this cover but that's not the case. I have the good people at Harlequin to thank about that. I didn't have much to do with this gorgeous cover other than suggesting my thoughts on how my hero should look. After that it was completely up to them to come up with a model who fit and a background I can't help but love. And they obviously did a fantastic job! Way to go Harlequin!

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

This weekend I went to see Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress. That dress marked a period in history, a moment that is now gone forever. Yet, it's never been forgotten.

It's hard to believe that three months after she sang that song, Marilyn was dead. Either dead by her own hand or by someone else's, that is all still up for dispute but what has been written leaves some fascinating speculation. All I can say is that Marilyn didn't lead a dull life. From beginning to end, she rocketed through. Even those of us too young to remember the events of her life - know about Marilyn.

I was thinking about the stories I haven't forgotten. The ones that stick in your mind forever. I've read a lot of books and you remember some for awhile but the ones you never forget are definitely not the majority. Those books all have one thing in common, they have to strike an emotion. An example is East Lynn . It was a book so old that its pages were a soft, delicate butter feel. I grabbed it from my mother's stash on a rainy day with no other reading choices available. It turned out to be the first book that ever made my cry and because of that, I'll never forget it. Heidi, was the book of my childhood. The unabridged edition that my mother found in a second hand store became the book that saw me through childhood. I lost track of how many times I read that book and how many times I longed to live on that idyllic mountain toasting cheese and frolicking with goats. But I was eight when I began my Heidi era, what did I know? Then there was A Woman of Substance - a powerful book by Barbara Bradford Taylor. That introduced me to the saga and I loved it. There's more but the truth is that most books entertain us in the moment, we talk about them with our friends but they're not books that we'll remember in our twilight years that flag moments in our life. Those books are special. Like Marilyn's dress and the person that bought it - they've done things a little bit different. They've been successful and in both cases beaten the odds - struck a chord and that has made them memorable.

So back to the dress. How did all of this come about? It was because of a man by the name of Jimmy Pattison. He was born in a village in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. It was a time when everyone was bailing out of the prairie dust bowl so his family moved to Vancouver He went on to become extremely successful. Now, he's a philanthropist known for giving back to his place of birth. So when he bought Marilyn Monroe's Happy Birthday Mr. President dress he brought it back to Saskatchewan. And that is how I got to see Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress in a local grocery store called - Save-On foods. There with it's own RCMP guard in full uniform and a bevy of private security, was one of the most talked about dresses in history. I don't know what Marilyn would say about her dress being in a grocery store but for me, it was a great experience to see the dress that made history.

There's a story everywhere - look at this blog. In a few paragraphs there's a rags to riches story - two of them. There's the love story or entanglement between the president and the star. Did that song reveal something that led to her death three months later or was it just suicide? So many questions - so many stories.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

It's hard to believe that the fourth and last book in the Desert Justice series is on store shelves today, although the e-book isn't available, yet. It's kind of a two step launch for while the paperback copy is available now, the e-copy has a week or so to wait. You'll find the paperback at Walmart, Target, Superstore and other stores and, of course, Amazon.

That's my promotional schtick. Let's get down to basics. Desert Justice was the first series I ever wrote. Really, stand alone was my thing until I discovered the beautiful world of series where those characters I grew to love can show up again in other books in the series. Why didn't I visit the land of series before? You tell me why not, for I don't know. What I do know is how it feels to send the last in the series out into the world. It's "an I can't believe that time is here already" kind of feeling. Time sped up as each book in the series launched. It was like each set of characters was in a rush to get their story out there.

Faisal, the last Al-Nassar brother to star in the series, didn't keep quiet even after I wrote the last word of his story. He was in a rush to be reunited with the love of his life, Ava and he wanted the whole world to know about it - okay, he just wanted his book launched. And that wasn't going to happen as long as his brothers had the stage in the three books that preceded his. And while he wasn't willing to give up his snowboard and his single status he was definitely interested in a romantic reconnect.

Ava on the other hand, had more important things to think of - survival for one, especially in the beginning. Although she did dream of Faisal, how it was, how it might have been...

Okay let's dispense with my fantasy and move on to theirs and how it really happened.

He's the one she can't remember, she's the one he can't forget…

Tossed overboard, Ava Adams had been left for dead, drifting at sea. But security specialist Faisal Al-Nassar was determined to find her. He owed her father a great debt and had never forgotten the connection he and Ava had once shared. Yet after rescuing Ava he discovered she barely remembered him.

Amnesia had left Ava uncertain of who had tried to kill her. She did know, however, that Faisal was a man she could trust. The sheik's embrace was familiar and enticing…and possibly even more dangerous. How could she succumb to feelings for her protector when what she didn't know could get them both killed?

“It was less than an hour since Faisal had received that fateful call that Ava was missing. Now he looked long and hard at the face of the young woman who lay dead on the cold steel of the examining table. Her hair was long, almost to the middle of her back. She was brunette and a few years older than Ava. After that, the similarities stopped.He’d insisted on viewing the body in the hope that the similarities would somehow give him a much-needed clue. Now he didn’t know why he’d bothered. It was depressing and frightening all at the same time. Looking at her frightened him for Ava and saddened him for the deceased woman’s family.“She may have been asphyxiated,” the coroner said.

He listened as the coroner went into some detail on why he believed that could be a possibility.“Her eyes are bloodshot. Classic sign of asphyxiation.”A chill ran through him like none he’d felt before. He’d stood in this position many times but never had he felt the haunting fear that the person before him could have been someone he knew and loved. He almost took a step back. That thought combined with the cold steel and sharp smell of disinfectant that depersonalized death was almost too much. This wasn’t Ava but someone had loved her.Regret and anger snaked through him as he thought of how this young woman had died unnecessarily, how it could just as easily have been Ava on that slab. The reality was as disturbing as it was unthinkable. Whether they could prove it or not, he was sure that this woman had died of unnatural causes. It wasn’t right or fair. And he knew it happened much too often. He’d thought of adding a branch of investigations geared solely to violence against women. He’d seen too much of it in his work. But now wasn’t the time for such considerations.Five minutes later, Faisal was heading across the hospital parking lot to a charcoal 1967 Mustang he kept in Miami for his rare visits to the city. He slipped behind the wheel and leaned back against the plush leather, the keys in his lap, his arms crossed and a frown on his face.A woman who supposedly should have been Ava was dead. The fact that the decedent had been in Ava’s room and Ava was still the registered patient indicated that Ava was the target. Now there were questions that needed to be answered, and quickly.Where had Ava gone? He tamped down the panic he’d felt at losing her when he’d only just found her.”

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The question the Insecure Writing Group has for the first Wednesday of June is:

Did you ever say “I quit”? If so, what happened to make you come back to writing?

Did I ever quit writing? Yes for about fifteen minutes. Long enough to grab a cup of coffee and come to my senses. Truly, I can't quit writing, that's who I am.

It's tough especially when the rejections come or the sales aren't there. But I don't know who I'd be if I didn't write. On my writing journey I've discovered so many authors who have held out a hand and helped me. That's the crazy thing of this business, all the support we give one another. In a business made of hopes and dreams, support is a fantastic thing and with all of it around you - how could you quit?

Along for the ride at the grocery store - what if?

Scrubbing a bathroom - what if?

A story begins with what if and then it's a lot of perspiration to find out how it all ends. I know life gets in the way; kids and parents, jobs, all it. I've found that you can make those day to day obstacles work for you in the inspiration department. There's ideas even in a store. The other day I was following a parent on her grocery expedition and while she shopped I thought what if this, or that or the other thing happened - what a story that would make. That same what if comes up when I'm in the middle of cleaning a bathroom or two. Of course that's when I use the dullness of the task to fill in the blanks as there isn't much inspiration in the back half of a toilet.

What if?

Actually, this time, while I was spraying and scrubbing I was thinking of that book on serial killers and how all that information is going to come in really handy for a future book. What it will be about - well serial killers for sure.

More importantly, there's the readers. Whether you have one reader, a hundred or thousands - it only takes one. There's nothing better than knowing that someone read your story and liked it, maybe even forgot how tough real life can be - at least for a time.

Quit writing?

In the words of one of my favourite authors, Stephen King:

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."

I don't know how true that quote is but I do know that if you quit, you'll never succeed as a writer.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

So all in the name of research, or really - just a cool thing to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon - I made my debut at trap shooting. Actually, it was my first time shooting a shotgun which I was told after the fact, was too big for me. My aching shoulder and burning cheek thank you for that information - a little too much, too late.

It really wasn't the day for anything outdoors but when things are planned in advance, the weather often doesn't cooperate - at least not on the prairies. We're known for weather that is so unpredictable that often one thinks that the weatherman really just rolled the dice on the last prediction. Today, the wind was crazy strong and there was rain in between. Weather aside, I learned a lot 25 shots later. Like, on my first shot - lean into the gun and you won't plant your foot squarely on the instructor's foot, hard enough to bruise, when the kick throws you backwards. Or, on the second shot, the fact that the empty shells actually spit out with a bit of force when you empty the gun. Again, as I rub my cheek, who knew!

So with a simple call "Pull" - let the bullets fly so you can take that clay pigeon down. Look at that - I'm already into the lingo. Now, it's just a matter of getting that trap.

All in all, I think with a few more attempts I have a good shot - pun intended - at winning most improved. In the meantime, while I wait for my most improved medal or maybe while they get one made, it was fun. I met some interesting people and yes, this is fantastic research. I'm already thinking of the possibilities. And given the chance, I'd try it again. Although wild things - like the squirrels I feed regularly or the geese that landed in a field on the way home - breath easy, any shooting will be strictly at inanimate objects.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Today is release day for the third in the Desert Justice Series - Son of the Sheik. It's always exciting knowing that your book is out there. The story I envisioned so many months ago, the characters that came to life and surprised me on more than one occasion are now hopefully entertaining others, like they were meant to do.

Someone is threatening to expose Sara Elliott's secret. After draining her bank account, she flees to Morocco to face the one man she fears, the only man who can protect her son. Sheik Talib Al-Nassar has money and power, but nothing could prepare him for seeing his ex, especially in his homeland. Though suspicious of this reunion, he would do anything to shield her and her little boy from further danger. He welcomes them to his family compound, but Talib's shelter has a price of its own. Like Sara's blackmailer, he desires only one thing: the truth about her son...

"Over here," Talib commanded and with those two words made it clear that not only was he back in her life, but he was also taking charge, at least for now. And, at least for now, she would let him. Later--she hadn't thought that far.

This had been a journey of desperation. And now, despite having come all these miles to find him, she wanted to run--take her son with her before it was too late for both of them.

Instead, she looked up at him. "I can't believe I ran into you in the midst of this. But Im glad you were here to find--"

"What are you doing here, Sara?" He cut her off with hint of anger in his voice.

The conceited donkey.

He thought she was here because of him. She looked at her son in his arms and that was the only reason she didn't lose it then and there. Unfortunately the truth of it was that what he was implying, what he'd left unsaid..he was right. She was here because of him, just for none of the reasons that the arrogant fool thought.

What she was here for was much more serious than any romance ever could be. And despite what he thought, and she knew very well what he thought, it was hard to deny the truth. He was a magnet for women, but no magnet to her. Not anymore. Those days were long over. But despite not needing him romantically, he was right about one thing. She did need him, she needed him very much.

For without him she was terribly afraid she was going to lose her son.

"...an American woman, her young son and his unsuspecting father, a Moroccan Sheik. There was just enough adventure/intrigue mixed with sexy love scenes to keep me

Desert Justice Series

Son of the Sheik

Sheik's Rule

Sheik's Rescue

About Me

I’m a romance author and a writer of women’s fiction. The Canadian prairies are home but the cold winter months often find me exploring the world whether it’s south of the border or a little further afield, there’s adventure to be had. And sometimes it’s the memories of those “other” worlds, the smell of the spices, the words of a stranger, the furtive look one man gives another, that often become the catalyst for a suspenseful story with a deadly villain and an intrepid hero and heroine who must battle for their right to love or even their right to live, in a place that neither may call home.

Sheik Defense

Suspect Witness

Out And About On The Web

Legacy of Fear

A lost women's language, a blinding passion, and killers on their trail!

Intent to Kill

Intent to Kill

Intent to Kill

In the shadows of Angkor Wat, evil lurks. Innocent women have already died and journalist Claire Linton is quietly targeted in a plot for revenge that reaches back into the heart of evil. Unaware that the story of her career is about to turn deadly, Claire hopes for answers when she meets Interpol agent, Simon Trent. Instead, he's frustrating and secretive and turns up so often, it's clear he's following her. And as kisses ignite beneath the golden streaks of a Cambodian sunset and passion begins to ramp up, a decades old plot for revenge unfolds.

But with trust at a premium and lives at stake - has love been outplayed?

In the heat of the jungle, there's more to fear than just the hint of death.